


Red Cloaks

by fangirl_squee



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Conduit!Stiles, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-27
Updated: 2013-05-27
Packaged: 2017-12-13 03:24:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/819397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl_squee/pseuds/fangirl_squee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he was little, Stiles’ mother would tell him fairy stories before bed. It wasn’t until Mrs McCall babysat him that he realised his mother’s version were different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Cloaks

When he was little, Stiles’ mother would tell him fairy stories before bed. It wasn’t until Mrs McCall babysat him that he realised his mother’s version were different.

 

His mother told him that _a long time ago, a young woman in a long, white cloak was walking through the woods, on the way to visit her grandmother. On the way she met a wolf, who’d been injured. Hunters were chasing him, so the young woman took him with her to her grandmother’s house and hid him there. When the hunter came to the door, the young woman lied to him and told him she had never seen the wolf. But the hunter had been tracking the wolf a long time, and so he knew the young woman was lying. Later that night, he came back and kicked the door in (Mama Stilinski always accompanied this part by stamping her foot, and years later, when Stiles remembered that part of the story, his foot would twitch), and demanded to see the wolf. When the hunter found him, he drew up his sword, and the young woman threw herself in front of the wolf. By the time the hunter realised what he’d done, her white cloak was soaked a dark red._

 

Stiles always told his mother this part was too sad. And his mother would say, “oh no honey, without that you can’t get to the best part”.

 

_As the woman lay there, she asked the hunter to let the wolf go and because the hunter was a good man, he agreed never to hunt in those woods again._

 

“That’s why it’s a happy ending, honey,” his mother would say as she tucked him in, “that young woman saved the wolf, and all the other wolves that lived in those woods. That young woman was a hero, and that’s why our family honours her memory by wearing red.”

 

“Like when you go visit the Mrs Hale?”

 

“Yes, Genim, exactly. One day when you're big enough we’ll get a red cloak too, and you can come along too.”

 

 

Allison told him once that her father told her “if you know about the world, then it’s your duty to protect others".

 

 

Conduits (like his mother, like _him_ ) have a different point of view on this. They believe that, if you know the truth of the world, that your duty is to protect _everyone_.

 

“That means _everyone_ , Genim,” Stiles’s mother would say, “even if they’re not entirely human. That’s what makes our code different from a Hunter’s Code. Just because someone is human it does not make them a priority.”

 

“So how do you decide who to help?”

 

His mother smiled. “Like most things in life, it’s not black and white. You have to look at the situation and decide for yourself.”

 

Stiles thought about this, watching his mother stir the Monday Night Stir Fry. “Is it hard? When you have to make that sort of choice?”

 

“Yes, and it always should be. Sometimes even knowing which choice is the right choice can be difficult, and then following through,” she let out a sigh, “can be even harder.”

 

“Have you ever had to make a hard choice?”

 

“Yes. But that’s a story for another time.”

 

 

His mother died in her red cloak.

 

His father was at the station when his mother got a call. She was needed at the Hale house, she said to him, it was nothing serious, she’d be home before his father got home and they could start dinner together.

 

The house got darker and darker. Stiles tried to start dinner by himself (they were only going to make a stir fry anyway, and that was easy, he could do that), and tried not to worry (she said it was nothing serious, she’d just got caught up talking to Mrs Hale, that was all).

 

Later, when he tells the story to Scott, he’ll say his dad got home and told him the news and they went to the hospital together. It’s the first time he outright lies to Scott about anything.

 

What _actually_ happens is the hospital tries to call his father, but they can’t reach him at the station so they call his home number. They get Stiles. Ten minutes later his father’s patrol partner is at the door telling him the news too.

 

“There was a fire at the Hale property, your mother, she’s -” (Stiles will remember Officer Adam’s face, scrunched up, trying to get the phrasing right, trying to minimise the hurt) “been injured.”

 

His father is already at the hospital when they get there. His mother is already gone.

**Author's Note:**

> feedback is always appreciated: fangirl-squee.tumblr.com/ask


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